Automated biscuit making process involves four basic stages namely mixing, forming, baking and packing. Once mixing, forming and baking operations are completed, the biscuits thus formed leave the baking oven in a continuous flow, along one or a plurality of supply-lines/chutes, with biscuits upstanding about edges thereof and abutted against one another. For some types of biscuits and packaging, it is necessary to create appropriate batches out of the biscuits traveling along the supply line. Such batches or arrays consist of a predetermined number of biscuits. After forming batches out of the biscuits traveling along the supply line, these batches are delivered to a wrapping or boxing mechanism to perform packaging thereof into separate packages.
Some prior-art methods and apparatuses for grouping discrete laminar articles such as biscuits into batches of predetermined count are known. The methods and apparatuses for forming such batches and transferring such batches to the delivery lines are known to cause and face considerable difficulties and inconveniences along the production lines. For example, the thicknesses of the biscuits being manufactured by the automated biscuit making process vary during the course of production. Due to variation in the thickness of the biscuits, there is every chance of miscount during formation of batches thereby, resulting in batches of non-uniform sizes that is undesirable. Further, there is every possibility of breakage or crushing of the biscuits along edges thereof, due to shearing action between the biscuits and the apparatuses used for forming batches and transferring the batches during handling of such batches.
The existing methods and apparatuses overcome the difficulties faced by the prior-art methods and apparatuses for grouping discrete laminar articles such as biscuits into batches of predetermined count. However, such existing equipment operates at low speed or takes up too much space. Further, existing apparatuses used for forming batches of biscuits and transferring the batches make use of pressure-less feeders in order to restrain damage to the biscuits, while being handled by the existing apparatuses. However, such pressures-less feeders are complicated and expensive.
Accordingly, there is felt a need for a method and an apparatus for grouping discrete laminar articles such as biscuits into batches of predetermined count that overcomes the drawbacks associated with the prior art as well as existing methods and apparatuses and that can be effectively used in production lines.